My case (financial/work situation)

[RetireJapan]

How are the private lessons going? Are you teaching 1-to-1? If so, there's potential to scale this up to group lessons, maximising the profitability. Also, are you claiming all expenses if doing tax returns? If not, there might be scope to maximise profitability in this case through a bit of bookwork. Private lessons could be a growth area whilst taking the positives of the current job (5yr history there implies you know the systems inside out, and the steady paycheque) and mitigating the negatives (mismanagement, etc). Over time, could change the ratio of employed / self-employed teaching (if you're employer accepted you going down from 5 days to 4, for example). Some people parlay this type of thing into full-time or semi-full-time self-employment. Still doesn't get shakai hoken, but avoids bad bosses, and can maximise profitability. Can sound scary to some, but you've already taken the first step of teaching privately and already have a track record of teaching group lessons (presumably?) at your eikaiwa; no intrinsic reason from your post why the private lessons can't be scaled up.

This is a great option. Owner/operators can make a decent living running a small eikaiwa. It is very possible to make 500,000 to a million a month or more if you have a full teaching schedule.

We charge 7,000-16,000 yen a month per student, and have classes of 8-14 students.

[AreTheyTheLemmings?]

We charge 7,000-16,000 yen a month per student, and have classes of 8-14 students.

Sorry to digress. How many lessons per month?

[RetireJapan]

Sorry to digress. How many lessons per month?

42 a year. The number per month will vary.

Used to do 46, then 44. From April we'll switch to 42 (which seems incredibly common in other schools -I have been asking around).

[AreTheyTheLemmings?]

Sorry to digress. How many lessons per month?

42 a year. The number per month will vary.

Used to do 46, then 44. From April we'll switch to 42 (which seems incredibly common in other schools -I have been asking around).

Thanks.

[KCLenny]

If you are on shakai hoken and your wife earns under a certain amount (used to be 1.3m yen a year, not sure if it still is) she will get her pension and health insurance for free basically.

Oh I see. Yes that’s one main benefit to changing company!

Firstly, hats off. Sounds like you're living frugally and taking steps to consider your financial future.

Quite frugal. But also just don’t need to travel. It’s not something that really interests me.

How are the private lessons going? Are you teaching 1-to-1? If so, there's potential to scale this up to group lessons, maximising the profitability. Also, are you claiming all expenses if doing tax returns? If not, there might be scope to maximise profitability in this case through a bit of bookwork. Private lessons could be a growth area whilst taking the positives of the current job (5yr history there implies you know the systems inside out, and the steady paycheque) and mitigating the negatives (mismanagement, etc). Over time, could change the ratio of employed / self-employed teaching (if you're employer accepted you going down from 5 days to 4, for example). Some people parlay this type of thing into full-time or semi-full-time self-employment. Still doesn't get shakai hoken, but avoids bad bosses, and can maximise profitability. Can sound scary to some, but you've already taken the first step of teaching privately and already have a track record of teaching group lessons (presumably?) at your eikaiwa; no intrinsic reason from your post why the private lessons can't be scaled up.

3 private students, once a week. All separate, all over the city. So lose one day off effectively. I’m not against the idea of losing a day of my main job if I can get more stable regular private students.
I just don’t know how to do that, I’ve tried, I’ve had several trial lessons. And obviously the ones I do have stay with me because they like my style and the value (I think I massively undercharge (¥2500 a time). So yeah, definitely wouldn’t be against scaling it up, if anyone has any advice how.

Does your wife have (1) a period of 3yrs of continuous UK residency in her past (even in childhood), and (2) a national insurance number (NINO)*? If yes and yes, she would be eligible to make voluntary Class 3 contributions despite no UK work history. Could be something to consider for the future, even if finances are strained now to make the annual Class 3 contributions (approx 200,000 yen per year).

* many people who were resident in the UK when they turned 16 would have automatically been issued with a NINO if their parents/guardians were registered for child benefit (which happens in the majority of cases).

Yes she does. Born and raised in the uk, did somewhat work there but no where near enough nor long enough to pay NI. She has her number. Have looked into enough to know she should class 3 and I’ve suggested several times for her to get on it and potentially ask her parents to consider helping pay it off to get the minimum 10 years.
Will nudge again next month when we both have a little less going on.

Definately the UK masters distance learning programs have become a lot more expensive since I did them 20 years ago. Have you thought about doing either in Japan or at a non-English speaking counties' university. This reason I ask is that my wife completeld distance learning Masters in Poland during Covid, all classes were English, her teacher was Ukrainian. This Masters were very reasonable priced. This April she will start her first part time Uni classes in Japan, she is also a non-naitive English speaker.

I don’t know what reasonably priced is to you, but several million yen a year is not something I can afford, personally. And to be honest, even less than that is still pushing it as well.

I do have one piece of advice I feel might be valuable, but it's predicated on something. So, if I'm not being too impertinent, could I ask you one thing in advance?

Am I correct in thinking that you're quite an introvert?

Yes. I don’t go out socially, or really talk to many people (and I’m fine with that. I’m not trying to get pity or whatever. I’m not one of those people who comes to Japan and then complains why can’t I make any friends?! I never had many friends in the uk either. I’m happy being by myself and with my wife. I’m also diagnosed (in the uk) as autistic.

[Yossarian]

I saw your other post about citizenship. Here's an idea if you get that or PR.

Spend a year or two learning a new skill. Graphic design, coding, whatever floats your boat. When you get a visa that gives you more freedom to work, you can start looking at freelancing or remote jobs for your new skill.

I did that a couple of years ago. Left uni teaching because I agree with Ben's comments and am worried about future of working in education in japan. I taught myself copywriting and marketing. Now I'm a freelance marketer working with overseas tech companies. Zero official qualifications. But lots of opportunities like that online when you get citizenship/PR.

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

I saw your other post about citizenship. Here's an idea if you get that or PR.

Spend a year or two learning a new skill. Graphic design, coding, whatever floats your boat. When you get a visa that gives you more freedom to work, you can start looking at freelancing or remote jobs for your new skill.

I did that a couple of years ago. Left uni teaching because I agree with Ben's comments and am worried about future of working in education in japan. I taught myself copywriting and marketing. Now I'm a freelance marketer working with overseas tech companies. Zero official qualifications. But lots of opportunities like that online when you get citizenship/PR.

Bit of a digression, but don't you feel under threat from A.I as a freelance copywriter with no formal qualifications?

[Yossarian]

Bit of a digression, but don't you feel under threat from A.I as a freelance copywriter with no formal qualifications?

I do website copywriting which AI is pretty bad at currently. I also do a lot of customer research and strategy, too. If I was doing only content marketing or social media copywriting, I'd be very worried.

AI has definitely made life more difficult for many freelance writers though. It's interesting seeing how companies react. Some people are all aboard with gen AI. Others are very strict (at a contract level) about having no AI generated work.

No doubt AI will be able to do most writing very well in the future. And for companies who are going for quantity over quality, it's plenty good enough now.

My safety net is customer research. Until AI can do customer interviews, I'm safe.

[adamu]

No doubt AI will be able to do most writing very well in the future.

I wouldn't be sure about that. The models are trained on all publicly available text (gathered imorally, without permission). But from now on, new text is polluted by output from the models themselves (known as slop) so developing them further will be quite challenging. And nobody has been able to solve the problem that the results are inaccurate, as by their nature they work on predictions.

Meh, I succumbed and wrote my anti-AI post. I thought ChapInTokyo was going to trigger me with the CoPilot thread, but it turned out to be this one.

[Deep Blue]

I must confess I have a different view on GenAI. Whether I like it or not, it’s only going to get better and better. I already use it constantly in my personal and professional life and the more I use it, the more I realise how little of the surface I’ve scratched.

It’s a bit like Bitcoin - I don’t like the idea one bit but the obvious trajectory is upwards.